1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to feeding animals, and more particularly to feeding household pets in a manner intended to entertain both pet and owner.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of domestic dogs and cats in United States households is estimated at more than 100 million. As Americans find themselves with a dwindling amount of free time to interact with their pets, they are drawn to increasingly creative methods of preventing the boredom which often leads to behavioral problems.
One method of keeping captive animals stimulated, which animal behaviorists highly recommend, is to hide or scatter food around the animal's living space. This encourages the animal to use its sight and smell to seek out its dinner, rather than allowing it to passively wait by the food bowl.
Current methods for scattering pet food are inadequate for a variety of reasons. For example, if a dog owner intends to feed his pet an entire meal by scattering kibble around the backyard, he would likely take a handful of food, walk around the yard sprinkling it over the grass, and return multiple times to retrieve another handful. There is no practical way to measure the amount of food which is being delivered, and this method requires multiple trips.
This presents a need for a device which allows the user to easily measure the amount of food to be distributed, to scatter the food evenly, and to transport the food throughout the distribution process without requiring multiple refills.